My little community has been rocked these past few months by a growing trend that no one saw coming. It isn’t drugs or rape or anything that can be countered in the physical realm of this world. It is suicide. It is a permenent solution to temporary problems as I have recently heard it called by a dear pastor friend. And that is so true. There is no way to counter it because it is ends everything. It is so sad as the vast majority of these events have taken the lives of children in our local high school. Young lives with so much more left to live for, ended because of high school “drama”.
They want to blame it on the government (they are not totally without blame but that is another post), bullying (it’s been around for generations), and home life. And I can see that each of these issues can make life hard for someone. And when we as a nation turn over our children for 8 plus hours each day to the government schools for their education we HAVE to know that it will impact their thinking. You might very well teach the Bible and God’s morals at home but the reality is you don’t have enough waking hours to combat all the hours they are filled with society’s morals at school. And when a society starts teaching that life isn’t sacred it will trickle down. Abortion ends lives that are not wanted or not perfect. We place elderly people in nursing homes where very few families ever visit. Their live is of no value to us anymore and their care is a burden.
Our children see that when a life is a burden, you just get rid of it. Such a sad way to think. But it is the message we are sending to our young people. And that breaks my heart. It is time for God’s people to rise up and take action. Make our voices heard. And work to return our country to be a place that values life. A place where people, when struggling in this world, turn to their family and friends and not to death. A place where we are not too busy to take the time to minister to our own families. A country where life is valued at ALL stages.
Counseling won’t fix this. Medications will only hide the problems. And educating teens on suicide will only elevate it in children’s minds. What we need is the light of Christ. What are you doing to be that light in your community?
AMEN!!!! Totally agree!
I am sorry to hear that your community is experiencing a “rash” of suicides. What a horrible tragedy for everyone involved. I lost my grandfather to suicide nearly 3 years ago. He ended his life because of the pain of his stage 4 cancer. I miss him every day, and I spent weeks after his death obsessing over morbid details of his death.
I have to disagree with you on the issues of bullying and medication. Of course, bullying has existed for as long as teenagers have existed. But it’s different now. I’m only 26, but kids who were bullied at least had the chance to leave the bullying at school. These days, the bullying follows them home through cell phones and social networking. Parents and schools need to do more to stop bullies.
While it is true that, for young people, antidepressants can lead to an increased suicide risk, depression is absolutely not the only cause of suicide. Allow me to tell you about my father. He developed schizophrenia in his mid 20s. This condition affects the chemistry of the brain and causes visual and auditory hallucinations and paranoid thoughts. He takes several medications to regulate his brain chemistry. If he stops the medication, the voices and the thoughts return. He became suicidal several times while he wasn’t medicated, because he thought people were after him and it was his only way out. He will be on some sort of medication for the rest of his life. So please don’t say medications only hide the problem. Sometimes, medication is the difference between life and death.